of the city's minority groups. A change of Republicans: Lazio While previous Republican candidates and fellow Long Island Congressmen Rick Lazio and Pete King had both indicated an interest in replacing Giuliani, upon Giuliani's withdrawal the state party quickly rallied around Lazio, who had more campaign funds and who was viewed as a potentially strong candidate. In particular, Governor Pataki — who never cared much for Giuliani to begin with — was strongly in favor of Lazio, and praised him as a "fresh, unencumbered challenger" to Clinton. This also caused a shuffle in New York's unique third-party ballot-line alignments: the Liberal Party of New York, which was previously set to run Giuliani (whom they had supported in all three of his mayoral races), now switched to Clinton, while the Conservative Party of New York, which had previously been loath to endorse the socially liberal Giuliani (and was set to nominate former Westchester Congressman Joe DioGuardi) lined up behind Lazio. Lazio accepted the unanimous approval of delegates to the Republican Party state convention at a hotel ballroom in Buffalo on May 30. Clinton now faced a lesser-known candidate in Lazio. While a relative moderate among House Republicans, Lazio had frequently supported former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a largely despised figure among many New Yorkers. Lazio did bring to the table an ethnic suburban background familiar to many New Yorkers, and had a reputation as an energetic campaigner. One formality left were New York's late-in-the-season primary elections on September 12, which in this case merely served to ratify the state party conventions' choices. Lazio won unopposed, while Clinton won 82 percent of the vote in easily defeating unknown Manhattan doctor Mark McMahon, who ran on the grounds that "the Clintons have tried to hijack the Democratic Party." For her part, Clinton said that she was "surprised, in a way [to see her name in the voting booth]. I stood there for a minute, staring at my name." In any case, the general election was already well underway. Democratic primary Results Republican primary Polling General election Polling Clinton v. Giuliani Clinton v. D'Amato Clinton v. Pataki Clinton v. King Lowey v. Giuliani Lowey v. D'Amato Lowey v. Lazio Campaign The contest drew considerable national attention and both candidates were well-funded. By the end of the race, Democrat Clinton and Republicans Lazio and Giuliani had spent a combined $90 million, the most of any